Cheviot Hills Recreation Center

1821-1920

The Rancho years and beyond

The Cheviot Hills Recreation Center and its Rancho Park Golf Course sit on an 1821 Spanish land grant: Rancho Rincón de los Bueyes. Sons of o
ne of the Rancho's first grantees, Bernardo Higuera, sold sections of the rancho to Don José de Arnazin 1849 (Secundino Higuera) and 1867 (Francisco Higuera). By 1875, Arnaz had subdivided the hilly northwest sections of the grant into Lots A through E, ranging from 73 to 126 acres. Lots B and C (shows as 104 acres each) would become the bulk of the Recreation Center land – after passing through a few more owners.

William Herbert Fowler (1856-1941) designed the golf course.
According to Jones, Fowler laid out an 18-hole, par-72, 6,250 yard long golf course that made full use of the many hills, ditches, and arroyos. The Ambassador linksopened on July 26, 1921. Ambassador Hotel architect Myron Hunt designed the clubhouse. Over the years, the course was reconfigured (and renamed) as detailed in Jones' "Rancho Park History 1921-2008."

With the May 16, 1923, Ambassador Annexation – likely named for the Ambassador links – the area was annexed into the City of Los Angeles. According to historian Jones, that meant a
"reliable city water supply which allowed the club to hire contractor / architect Billy Bell to refurbish the original Fowler course that included installing a new irrigation system that could better grow grass on the bare hills while also enlarging some tees and widening some of the fairways." (Rancho Park History 1921-2008.)

Jones also tells that, in "1923 the Rancho Golf Club signed a 10-year lease for the course and buildings" and the "Rancho course was also home to the Los Angeles Athletic Club, before the opening of their own course, the Riviera Country Club, in 1927." (Rancho Golf Club 1921-1950, for the Golf Historical Society.)

The Straus family fortune that owned Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel and Alexandria Hotel– along with Ambassador Hotels in New York City and Atlantic City – was built on selling securities. The 1929 stock market crash, and the ensuing Great Depression, toppled the Straus family and led to the United States government owning their country club land. A 1935 court decision on the liquidation of the Straus interests relates the following:

In 1882 Frederick W. Straus established the business of selling first mortgages on small improved property in Chicago. In 1895, he was joined by his son Simon W. Straus, and together the family operated several corporations under the name S. W. Straus & Co. Straus began selling third party corporate bonds secured by real estate mortgages. Some mortgages, such as that on its Ambasador Hotel in Los Angeles, were overvalued in order to leverage more funds. Straus also sold unsecured mortgages to those who relied on the company's prior bona fides. The October 24, 1929, stock market crash, and "the depression which followed" laid bare the schemes, and they may have taken their toll on the Strauses themselves: Simon W. Straus died on September 7, 1930; his son-in-law, Herbert S. Martin, died in 1930; S. J. Tilden Straus, his brother, and Walter S. Klee, his nephew, died in 1932.

The Straus interests were given until the end of 1933 to redeem the property by paying their debt, but they reportedly said they'd abandon it instead. And the City of Los Angeles Park Commission determined in October 1933 that it could not afford to buy or lease the golf course. Instead,
in Fall 1933, before the course was completely ruined by a lack of maintenance since the August 1993 land siezure, the United States Golf Association leased the land from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
Southern California "Public Links" representative A. La Verne Nichols took over management and hired William P. "Billy" Bell to maintain the course. By February 1934 the Rancho Golf Public Golf Course re-opened with a day of free golf. (Rancho Golf Club 1921-1950.)

In January 1934, the Internal Revenue Commissioner could not sell the course except for a fraction of its true value (appraised in October 1933 as having a value of $500,000), so he entered into a subsequent trust document and continued lease it out. The January 1934 trust agreement "provided that the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, as trustee, would make no sale or conveyance of the properties prior to January 1, 1937, without the written consent of the Rancho Golf Club . . . and Samuel J. T. Straus, Chicago, Ill., or in the event of his death or disability, by certain other named members of the Straus family." (Comptroller General's August 1934 opinion for the Secretary of Treasury.) The Commissioner
did, however, auction the club's furniture, silverware, and course maintenance equipment on August 30, 1934.

The photograph below was captioned, "When golfers, officials and fair scorers gather at the Rancho Golf Club Sunday afternoon, May 21, for the P.G.A.-amateur team matches the 'Spanish influence' will be felt, as the girls will be garbed as señoritas – more or less – with wide brimmed sombreros, etc." What would Higuera, Lopez, or Don José thought?

May 16, 1939, photograph, left to right: Charley Lacey, one of the best of the professionals; Ruby Keeler (Mrs. Al Jolson), a scorer; A. La Verne Nichols, a tournament official; Audrey Powell, a fair scorer; Neil Whitney, one of the best of the amateurs; C. Pardee Erdman, president of the Southern California Golf Association; Ruth Elder (Mrs. A. A. Gillespie), a scorer; Fred O'Dannon, a tournament official, and Mrs. Stan Kertes, a scorer. Tournament receipts would finance a trip east of the Los Angeles Public Links team. (Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library Herald-Examiner Collection.)

USGA operation would cease at the end of 1942, but the Commissioner kept the club running. On September 27, 1942, the Los Angeles Times announced that the Bureau of Internal Revenue would accept bids for a three year lease, beginning on December 1, 1942, on the Rancho Country Club property. In November 1942 (six years after the American Legion post began its campaign), it was announced that the City of Los Angeles would lease the Rancho Country Club from the Federal Government.

Margie Hayes (8) and Bobby Zuckerman (9) are in the line of children taught skiing by Ed Heath, head instructor, during January 12, 1957, class at the Cheviot Hills Playground. (Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961, courtesy University of Southern California Libraries and California Historical Society.)

Arnold Palmer putts while Gary Player watches at the Rancho Golf Course during the 1963 Los Angeles Open Tournament, at which $50,000 was paid to the winner. (January 3, 1963, courtesy Los Angeles Public Library, Valley Times Collection.)

Young participants of the 57th Annual Model Yacht Regatta, held at the Cheviot Hills Casting Pond. The event was sponsored by the Elementary Industrial Arts Office Division of Career and Continuing Education of the Career Education Services Unit. Photograph dated May 31, 1980. (Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library, Herald-Examiner Collection.) The pond is gone; the last reported regatta there was May 9, 1986.